about

Clover is a community oriented video game for the dinner line at Cloyne Court, a 140-student housing cooperative. Because dinner, which is made by a crew of students, is frequently yet unpredictably served late, the line ends up wraps around the dining room and its loudness causes both social anxiety and expectation.

The beginnings of a dinner line, 15 minutes before dinner is scheduled to be served.

Informed by several interviews with house members and a 50+ long email chain about why the dinner line blows, my team and I decided to create a collaborative video game to not only reduce anxiety in line, but also foster cooperative interactions—something that has been waning as the dinner line gets increasingly aggressive. Each semester, residents of Cloyne express interest in a house pet. Now they have Clover, a chameleon they need to feed to keep alive, as they wait for their own food.

Clover in action.

The game is controlled with 3 wireless buttons, retrofitted from bowls which members of Cloyne use to dine. Each button turns changes Clover's color, so it can eat the leaves it matches.

The controllers, passed around in line.

Although you don't have the controllers, you can still experience the game! The main game is located at queuemeleon.herokuapp.com, and you can send colors by visiting here (preferably on a different mobile device).